RASC Members Featured in Photography Exhibition

RASC members from Hamilton, Toronto, Ottawa, Kitchener-Waterloo and Niagara are being featured in the tenth annual CONTACT photography festival[2] which opens today in Toronto. A total of 20 outstanding astroimages, selected by SkyNews Editor Terence Dickinson, will be on display in the Great Hall of the Ontario Science Centre until May 31st. A special presentation focusing on astrophotography is planned as part of the official opening on May 9th.

A total of 89 entries were received from RASC members from Belleville to London. Images from the following entrants from across Ontario have been selected for this year's exhibit:

Stephen Barnes (Hamilton)

Bill Braithwaite (Toronto)

Stef Cancelli (Toronto)

Ian Donaldson (Toronto)

Anton Epp (Kitchener-Waterloo)

Dan Falk (Toronto)

Dietmar Kupke (Toronto)

Stuart Heggie (Toronto)

Leslie Marczi (Niagara)

Paul Mortfield (Toronto)

Richard Sewards (Toronto)

Michael Wirths (Ottawa)

The winning images are now on display in the Great Hall of the Ontario Science Centre where they will until May 31st. The exhibit will be officially opened at a meeting of the Toronto Centre of the RASC on Wednesday, May 9, 2007 beginning at 7:00 p.m. This meeting will also include an introductory presentation on astroimaging presented by Stuart Heggie and Paul Mortfield.

Terence Dickinson, Editor of SkyNews and judge for this year's competition, remarked: "The quality of the entries was outstanding and choosing only 20 for the exhibition was difficult. Many of the entrants will be invited to have their work appear on the pages of SkyNews, and on the magazine's website (www.skynews.ca[3]) to provide additional exposure."

This year's CONTACT theme The Constructed Image[2] is very apt for this outstanding exhibition of astrophotography. Many specialized processing techniques are often needed to tease out detailed image information that can be obscured by atmospheric turbulence and extreme magnification and distance. The results delivered by local astroimagers using of the shelf equipment from their own backyards is nothing short of astonishing when compared with what could be done just a few short years ago.